1. Hydration. Not just the day of class, but as a constant in life. The more water, the better. Drink up.
2. Getting a lot of sleep. I found this out kind of by accident. During the week I average 7 hours of sleep per night, and 9 on weekends. I'd long suspected the correlation between getting plenty of rest and doing better in yoga class, based on the general theory that maintaining a healthy lifestyle will benefit most strenuous physical activities. But one weekend earlier this year, I crashed and slept for 12 hours on accident, then woke up and went to a Bikram class. It felt like the room was a miraculous 75 degrees F instead of 105! So easy, I just sailed through. Lesson learned.
3. Proper attire. I like Lululemon, because their stuff is durable and comfy, and they have an outlet about an hour from my house where everything is 25-40% off. It's still quite an investment, but a good one.
4. An absorbent mat towel. Regular bath towels will not prevent you from sliding. I have a Kulae yoga towel for Bikram, and a Yogitoes towel for hot power Vinyasa, plus a few off-brand ones that I keep on hand for Yin.
5. Nutrition. I learned this the hard way. I began practicing hot yoga eight months after my father died, and right after I had transitioned from a very stressful position with long hours to a much more reasonable one. At the time, I was completely drained and depleted on a lot of levels. I hadn't been making good food choices, I'd been drinking a lot of beer and wine, and my heart was broken. Yoga helped me rebuild my mental and physical health, but first I fell apart. I caught all manner of colds, and had my lymph nodes swell up mysteriously, off and on, for months. Once I resumed my longstanding habit of proper food intake plus supplements (pushed aside for lack of time while my father was ailing and I was working that insane job) and scaled back my beverages slightly, hot yoga got a lot easier. When I started replenishing my electrolytes, it got easier still. And so on and so forth.
I have definitely noticed that beer, wine and any alcohol at all acts to directly negate any sports training. I didn't realize how seriously until I stopped drinking altogether. So many things were relieved: headaches, sugar cravings, caffeine crash and burn, muscle aches and pains...I think my lifestyle has finally reached a critical tipping pt where I need that peak performance
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